Yah that wouldn't be easy to capture unless you were ready for it with a DSLR in continuous mode, Shutter priority, etc. Still the castle shot is slick. You say way north, I suppose way north of the Wales northern border then (Conwy, et al)?

It was early morning. The statue is a cutout that someone put there a long time ago; it's in a public park. If you look closely you can see five different layers of hills behind it. I have a slightly blurrier picture that wasn't quite in focus, and it looks like there actually is a horse standing there, although you loose the detail in the grasses.

That hill and cut-out is at our home cross-country course, marking the "mile hill" Our course has the most hills in the state.

I'm not in any photo classes, although I do know a lot about setting up shots correctly, breathing, etc... (most of it I've learned from this site )

I like that image. It makes me wonder why there is a shadowy character in the background, but the girl (your daughter) on the horse looks happy yet focused. Even though there are a lot of shadows, I like the lighting for this one too. Nice shot.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
MineCraft? mc.applenova.com | Visit us! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.

I like that image. It makes me wonder why there is a shadowy character in the background, but the girl (your daughter) on the horse looks happy yet focused. Even though there are a lot of shadows, I like the lighting for this one too. Nice shot.

Thanks, the shadowy character, is the riding professor. That's why she is in the background : there is always a teacher hidden somewhere behind a student

Would those last two sentences and a deeper relationship by any chance.

Here I go.
Haven't really been photographing for a while and I forget what images I already posted.
(Don't want to repeat myself.)

I love the bookworm! That brought a smile to my face.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
MineCraft? mc.applenova.com | Visit us! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.

I took this one in the same location as the previous photo I posted. I wish I could bring this one more into focus, but I believe I've run into the limitations of a $150 zoom lens. My next major camera purchase will hopefully be a 50mm/1.4, or I might just pick up the 1.8 for now, since it's so inexpensive. I've heard it's a very sharp lens.

I took this one in the same location as the previous photo I posted. I wish I could bring this one more into focus, but I believe I've run into the limitations of a $150 zoom lens. My next major camera purchase will hopefully be a 50mm/1.4, or I might just pick up the 1.8 for now, since it's so inexpensive. I've heard it's a very sharp lens.

What was the focal length for that image? The longer the focal length, the shallower the DoF. I'm sure you didn't mean to link the two, but it looks like you think the f1.8 or f1.4 is going to give you a deeper DoF. The larger f-stop numbers give narrower apertures and thus deeper DoF. Of course, the larger aperture opening, the smaller the number and shallower DoF.

I like the shot anyway. You can see the web on it nicely.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
MineCraft? mc.applenova.com | Visit us! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.

What was the focal length for that image? The longer the focal length, the shallower the DoF. I'm sure you didn't mean to link the two, but it looks like you think the f1.8 or f1.4 is going to give you a deeper DoF. The larger f-stop numbers give narrower apertures and thus deeper DoF. Of course, the lager aperture opening, the smaller the number and shallower DoF.

I like the shot anyway. You can see the web on it nicely.

Actually, I only mentioned the lens because it's (from what I've read) very sharp, and that photo is somewhat out of focus.

But I'm still very new to SLR photography, so thanks for that, I didn't know before.

It's not so much out of focus ... it is just that you have focussed on the front twigs with a shallow depth of field. Also, as turtle mentions, the telephoto range will lessen the DOF too. I wouldn't necessarily say you have run into the limitations of the zoom just yet.

What you should do is go take that shot again. You have a digital camera - take a few shots. Do some bracketing. Stop the lens down to f/16 or more and see if that makes a difference. It won't cost you to develop the shots.

Btw, I have the 50mm f/1.4, and whilst I like it for indoor and low light photography the autofocus fishes a bit. When you get it right, though, it's wonderful. But you have to be careful - especially if using it wide open at f/1.4. For example, at that shallow depth of field, if your subject's face is not front on you will only get one eye in focus.

The f/1.4 also has better construction and the 8 blades provides better background blur, which is an effect I like.

It's not so much out of focus ... it is just that you have focussed on the front twigs with a shallow depth of field. Also, as turtle mentions, the telephoto range will lessen the DOF too. I wouldn't necessarily say you have run into the limitations of the zoom just yet.

What you should do is go take that shot again. You have a digital camera - take a few shots. Do some bracketing. Stop the lens down to f/16 or more and see if that makes a difference. It won't cost you to develop the shots.

Btw, I have the 50mm f/1.4, and whilst I like it for indoor and low light photography the autofocus fishes a bit. When you get it right, though, it's wonderful. But you have to be careful - especially if using it wide open at f/1.4. For example, at that shallow depth of field, if your subject's face is not front on you will only get one eye in focus.

The f/1.4 also has better construction and the 8 blades provides better background blur, which is an effect I like.

Thanks for the tips. I'll try that out next time I do close-up nature shots.

turtle - I'm quite envious that you're studying photography. You must be loving it! Scorned is a killer shot. I hate looking at it, but I'm drawn to it too.

stevegong - that ballet girl photo (can't recall where I saw it now) was timeless. I also like the one with the reflection in the water. I usually revel in a break with symmetry, but agree with turtle that the trees on the right are a bit too distracting in this instance, for my tastes.

GSpotter - love shots of the homeland. I haven't been there myself yet.

PowerDoc - nice to see you posting here. I really like the jazz shot - something about ambient lighting and capturing an artist in action pleases me. It's funny though, as we don't see many shots of writers at their manuscripts or painters at the canvas. I want to get into concert photography myself. I need to see more gigs and bring the camera along.

Noel - really love the colours and composition of those four shots. Simple and clean.

Thanks for the tips. I'll try that out next time I do close-up nature shots.

Unfortunately, this specific tree is three hours away.

Like Mac+ says, get out and shoot. It's one of the best ways to learn.

In my class we used a textbook that is openly available and really helps you to understand the basics of photography from a technical camera standpoint. While it talks about different "rules" and composition ideas, it's focus is camera usage. "Complete Digital Photography, Third Edition" by Ben Long. ISBN 1-58450-356-4. Well worth the $40 retail. You will learn a lot from going through this book. We didn't use the whole book for our class, but we used it for very technical basic camera skills.

*Sidenote; I use a Rebel XT too. Though I have plans for a 5D, I dream for a 1Ds Mark II.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
MineCraft? mc.applenova.com | Visit us! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.